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It's all about Technique
Introductions Leonardo Ellison had much to learn if he was going to achieve his dreams of being number one in T.S.J; if he was going to prove to the world that he was more than just a carnivorous beast. After all, that’s all he was here for. All he wanted was to prove the worth of his people, his very much endangered race. However, the recent exercise with his classmates demonstrated that he wasn’t ready for the heroing world. He wasn’t even close, and without his quirk, he was nothing. But, more than anything, it truly demonstrated that his quirk wasn’t inherently that powerful. Sure, it gave him superhuman intelligence, and while that was something, he thought was worthwhile, it wasn’t exactly very combat-orientated. Not on its own at least. So far, being a lion had allowed him to surpass his peers in other areas. Lions are innately powerful beast, and Leo’s physical condition was far above that of a mere human, especially due to his frequent training sessions with the best scientist that Silicon Valley could offer. However, in a world where someone’s quirk could empower their physical being, how far could he allow innate skill to carry him? Surely his quirk had to be more beneficial than letting him pull shit off the internet….right? From his encounters with Candace Newman, a girl he had met during the open house a while ago, there was apparently a senior whose quirk was so innately dangerous to control that he had devoted nearly the entirety of his time to perfecting it. He was surely one of the more technically skilled quirk users in the entirety of the school, or so Leo thought. Most of the time, he could be found sitting outside on the benches near the dining facilities. Therefore, Leo found himself in the area, until he spotted but a single man. He approached, clearing his throat. “Excuse me, but are you Percival Kaelson?” Percival had nothing to do today, a wonderful feeling indeed. He'd been walking merrily through the on campus park with a coffee in hand. Dressed in his casual attire of a large green zip up hoodie, a white shirt and some nice navy blue pants. That was when he heard and unfamiliar voice call to him. Percival whirled around, almost speaking before stopping as his eyes met what spoke to him. Before him stood a bipedal lion dressed in a standard student attire. His first instinct was to open the lid of his coffee peering at it. "I swear if Joy did it again I am never helping her baking booth again." He reached out and poked the lion's mane, it seemed real enough. "Hi there yeah I'm Percival, are you looking for the ummm. The club you might be looking for meets on Fridays, room 345 I think. Friend of mine told me that was the room for Poker Club, was not an amazing interaction I must say..." Percival trained off as the lion continued to look at him, blinking, breathing, and then it hit him. "Oh you're real, you're a real lion I had no idea we had someone like you here." Percival's eyes were wide and his expression was a mix of shock and excitement. Animals with human intelligence were not common but they did happen. "I'm Percival, again nice to meet you. Sorry about that." Leo nodded in agreement. “There is no need to apologize. If anything, I’m flattered that you’ve even heard of me. It’s not often that seniors are notified about freshman.” Percival just nodded back. "Yeah I heard we had a student like you coming in. They alert the students so they won't freak out if they you know, see a lion on campus." He took a sip from his coffee and extended a hand. "What's your name kid?" “Leonardo Ellison,” he replied casually, extending his hand outwards to shake Percival’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” "Good to meet you too." He replied as they shook. "So Leonardo what brought you to search me out? I mean I assume you had a reason for finding me right." “Oh, yes!” Leo responded, lifting his finger into the air as if an idea had just emerged in his mind, “Well, the other day, we had an exercise in my class and I learned that compared to some of my peers, I do not have full control over my quirk. Because, I’m an African Lion, I benefit greatly from the intelligence that it grants me. Therefore, I can walk on two legs, and really analyze and think about things. However, there’s so much more I can probably do. So, I decided I wanted to learn what I need to do to master this thing.” He paused and smiled. “I heard from Candace that you had a pretty strong quirk that you had to learn to use. She said it took you a while to really control it, so I thought that I would come and check you out for myself.” "Oh yeah I actually almost killed Candace and a couple other kids one time during my freshman year. It was not pretty but I moved past it. She's nice though, we get brunch sometimes." Percival reminisced as he nodded at Leo. "Yeah my quirk is definitely a handful, took around 3 years to really get a grip on it but I'm better for it now." He looked over Leo as if trying to discern something. "I suppose I can help you out, give you some lessons, nothing wrong with that." He took another sip of his coffee and tossed it into the trash bin down the path. "Yeah follow me we'll get a training room and get to work." “O-Oh, okay!” Leo responded, walking alongside Percival. “Also, if you want, you don’t have to call me Leonardo. Leo is actually preferred.” "Ahh alright will do Leo." Percival responded. "I usually go by Percival but a couple people who knew me back in freshman year still call me Percy, I used that nickname back then." "I will refer to you as Percival then," Leo quipped. "It's no problem if that what's you want to be referred to as. I believe that its only right that we refer to people with the appropriate titles that they wish to be referred to as. May I also ask what your pronouns are?" "He/Him, what about you?" Percival replied before quickly speaking up again. "Also could you explain what your quirk does to me while we walk?" "The same. He/His/Him," Leo added. "But, as for my quirk. Essentially, it allows my mind to do anything a supercomputer can do. This ranges from simple things such as numerical computations, to more complicated things like searching and downloading things from the internet directly into my psyche. However, to access the internet, I need a signal. Therefore, my brain has it's own data plan. It's....quite expensive." "Is that like a joke or do you actually have to pay someone to keep your brain linked?" Percival responded. Leo blinked. "How else would I access the internet? I mean, I could do it if I'm connected to the wifi, but that would be quite difficult to do if I was outside somewhere." Percival stared intently at him. "So do you have like a chip in your head or..?" "No," Leo chuckled, "In fact, only two mobile carriers actually use chips/sims cards. All other corporations rely on something we call an ESN, which is short of an Electronic Serial Number. When I registered with my carrier, they assigned an ESN to my brain, since it can emit electronic and radio-signals just like a cellphone. Since, well, a smartphone is essentially just a miniature computer. Especially nowadays. Sparknet has wonderful service too, so I quite appreciate that they weren't one of the two that made me put a chip in my head." "Oh I see, interesting. Sparknet is pretty good I agree, cut my phone bill in half basically." Percival nodded, briefly producing his phone as a prop. Leo nodded. "I actually don't know how much my phone bill is though. My parents pay it....although, I do have a pretty accurate guess." "Couldn't you like hack it and see or something?" "I could, but that'd be an invasion of privacy," Leo responded, "and against the law." "I can almost guarantee you've broken the law with that quirk." Percival laughed. "Haha, yeah maybe a few times. But, for good purposes, I promise....Like, watching the lionesses at the San Diego Zoo." "Pfff yeah sure those sound like good clean purposes." Percival chuckled as they seemed to finally be approaching the training hall. Leo chuckled, but even he couldn't help but notice the upcoming training facility. "I actually am embarrassed to say, but I don't exactly know what your quirk is, Percival. What could be so powerful that you spent three years honing it?" "Oh you want a demonstration? Alright will do. The basis of it though is that I can turn my body into ash and back. It's pretty cool." Percival moved through a couple doors and beckoned Leo into a large room with metal walls and a dirt floor. "Oh, yes please!" Leo responded, hurrying through the doors. "Alright then you stand way over there." Percival spoke as he pointed to a far side of the room. "Alright computer activate preemptive repair mode for this room please. Coordinates as follows." He spoke as he began to rattle off a list of coordinates and specifications for the room. "Alright now that that's set lets do this. This is what my quirk looked like when I was in your grade Leo." Percival stretched a bit before his entire body instantly turned to Ash, in seconds he reappeared accompanied by a large spherical blast of fire and heat, shooting out from him in every direction. The floor was vaporized but repaired in almost the same amount of time due to the protocol he had enacted. Even so the lingering heat caused parts of the dirt to burn away still. Leonardo threw his arm ups in defense instinctively as the tinge of heat brushed against his mane like the heat of an African savannah. It would have stung, had Percival not restrained himself even a little bit; it was obvious to Leo what had just happened. He had attempted to demonstrate the destructiveness of his quirk, all the while controlling it to the extent that some of the blast simply went around Leo's seven-foot frame. Though, he doubted Percy would have ever communicated something like that. It would have completely gone against his next example, and his general point about how he had grown to control his quirk. But, for Leo, it was he was actually looking for. That precision and level of technical skill was what he wanted for himself. He had to have it. "Holy....That's Amazing, Percival!!" "Yeah now imagine a 15 year old with that who was terrified out of his mind at using it cause he'd probably end up hurting everyone around him. That was me." He replied, motioning to himself with his left hand. "I trained hard to bend every aspect of this quirk to my command, observe." It happened again this time much faster, the blink between ash and human as he held his hand to his side. The wall he was pointing at had already begun repairing preemptively, a massive pillar of metal sticking from it. There was no nova this time, only a beam from his right hand, matching the dimensions of the pillar on the wall. Whatever metal it was stood not chance, as the concentrated heat and fire burst through it. Even with the pillar being rapidly repaired it took barely a second to put a hole in the wall. "Yeah, practicing this was an absolute nightmare as you can imagine. I burned so many things by accident. I think I had an entire room rapidly repairing itself at one point." The Fear of Failure "Though, what made you...." Leo paused as he attempted to find the necessary words to formulate his response. He hadn't known what to expect, but it certainly wasn't this. This quirk was so powerful that it was almost detrimental. "Where did you even know where to start?" "My first goal was being able to use my quirk near people without killing them. I had real bad anxiety but some people liked the mess I was. I wanted to be better for them." I just went out into an empty dune near here and began using it nonstop. Nova after nova of heat. I let it all out again and again and again. I did that for a while, just to get used to using it after keeping it locked up for so long. After that I went out and tired to make it smaller. Weeks of that." Percival nodded, walking over to Leo. "I was so exited when I could finally use it and know the size of the blast. I made sure to demonstrate on our next training day. I don't think anyone had ever seen me so nerveless." Leo placed his hand thoughtfully on his chin. "I see. So, it's about having absolute control over the area of effect of your quirk then. Being able to control exactly how far it went, where it went, how big the blast was and so forth...right?" "That was my first goal yes, absolute control. To use my quirk and never hurt anyone I didn't want hurt." Percival replied. "So then, my goal should be the same, yeah?" "I don't know if you're the same, your destructive capabilities aren't the same as mine. But striving for absolute control of your quirk is never a bad thing. It lets you have the most freedom." He placed a hand on Leo's face, palm towards him. In less than the time he could blink, ash and back. But there was nothing, no release of flames or explosion at all, just wisps of steam from his back. "I never dreamed of this but here I am." He took his hand away and rested it on his chin. "I need a demonstration of your quirk from you. Show me something, tell me something. Give me a combat scenario. I just need to analyze you further." "Haha, well," Leo begun, scratching the back of his head as he gave off a nervous grimace, "Thing is, my quirk is literally what I stated earlier. It's just, so far, letting me analyze information. There isn't anything I can actually do with it offensively, just yet...." “Hmm, watch me.” Perceval spoke as he proceeded to punch Leo in the face. “You see that coming?” In the moment that Percival had directed Leo to watch him, his eyes had caught onto the slightest movement of his arm. There, thousands, if not millions of simulations ran through his brain in but an instant, and it was clear his next course of action. Still, there had to be a point being made right? Leo sat there, and absorbed the blow. "Er...yes," he responded, rubbing his nose, "was there a reason for that?" “Well you have some terrible reflexes.” Percival laughed. Drawing his hand back. “How far ahead did you see it?” "U-Um," Leo begun, still rubbing his nose, "I saw it when you told me to watch you. You moved your arm slightly upwards, and there I ran several simulations about where it was going to go. It was only logical that you were intending to punch me." “Not good enough. Your mind is a damn supercomputer or so you tell me. The creases in fabric by a small movement of my arm. Contractions of skin, muscle twitch. You should be able to read people like books if you were working at your full potential.” Percival sighed. Leonardo tilted his head in confusion. "The....That far ahead? You want me to be able to do it that quickly?" “If I’m playing chess with a supercomputer I can make one move and that thing will no every possible win condition before my hand comes back to my lap.” Percival continued, tapping a finger on Leo’s head. “Not only that but you possess unique capabilities of sentience that computers do not. Critical thinking and so on. You can weaponize this in so many aspects.” "Hmm, I see!" Leonardo snapped. "What you're telling me right now is that I need to play more chess!" "Yes and no actually. You don't want to actually play chess but we want to run you through scenarios until you can read people like books. Not only is it possible for you to see their minute movements and person specific tells to predict attacks. You can essentially read emotions, be a living lie detector and I mean, actually I'll bring that one up later." Percival nodded as he pulled his phone out and opened an app on it. The phone buzzed as an interface of the room came up on it. "I seriously love technology man. I can hook my phone up to the room and control it from here. I'm gonna run a couple scenarios, for you, don't look though." "Oh...O-Okay!" Leonardo replied, throwing his hands over his ears and shutting his eyes. "I'm ready whenever you are!" "I meant peek at the code I'm running, I need you to see for this." Percival sighed "Oh, sorry..." Leonardo said, leaning over to look at Percival's phone. Percival turned his phone away from Leo and stepped back. Immediately a man appeared before Leo, wearing a black jumpsuit and a red ski mask. He dashed for Leo, attempting to kick him with his left leg. In response to his attack, Leonardo threw his hands down towards the man's leg, seeking to redirect his momentum and throw him off balance. The man flipped onto his back and disappeared. "Signifiers and how far ahead, list em." Percival replied to his maneuver. Leonardo blinked. "U-Um, well he spawned in, and he dashed forward with his left leg. His upper body didn't move, which indicated that he wasn't intending to punch, but he did orientate his body slightly to the side. Because he moved with his left leg, his right foot would have to be the pivot. It wouldn't be possible to strike with anything but his left leg then." "Ok, good. But I know its possible to see it quicker. Again" Percival called as another man appeared. He wasn't wearing a shirt and with almost not notice he punched at Leo's gut. "C-Can--" There was no real time for Leonardo to analyze this one. The villain made contact with Leonardo's gut, sending him staggering backwards. "Darnit!" "You good?" Percival called back to him. "Yes," Leo responded, his voice gruff as he lifted his head. "You're right; I have to get better. Something as simple as this, I have to be able to do it, if I want to be number one!" "That's the spirit right there. Lets do this!" Percival called out, tapping away at his phone. From Me to You Leonardo inhaled and exhaled deeply, opening his eyes as the sweat dripped from the pores of his paws. His uniform was decorated with dust, and his bodies was littered with dirt and bruises that were undoubtedly obtained from this training session. Although he had been focused on the task at hand, several hours had past since these simulations were being run. From his calculation, it was at least 10 pm at night. He was surprised the training facilities were even available this late into the night. He glanced over at Percival and took in all the necessary information. “Last one, huh?” “Nah we’re good.” Percival spoke, smiling at Leo. He placed his phone in his pocket and walked over to the kid, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Have to say you did pretty good. I don’t think I could punch shit for around 7 hours straight.” As he spoke his right knee came up directly at Leo’s gut. “Well, you know,” Leonardo responded, catching Percival’s knee in his hands as he continued. A smirk slid onto the corners of his visage. “I don’t think I could sit and train my quirk for three years, either. We all have a level of tenacity in us that can only be discovered when it needs to be.” “When and how did you see it?” Percival responded, retracting his knee with a smile. “Hmm, well it wasn’t like time slowed down there. Instead, I took in everything you said. If my mind is really like a supercomputer, then you’re right. I should be able to take in every piece of information, from the slightest twitch in your muscles, and determine the most likely course of action. Still, I guess I don’t really have the ability to see that just yet, that twitch, but when you moved, I did learn one thing….I can’t let my mind run rampant,” Leonardo explained. “See, at the beginning of this exercise, my mind automatically pictured thousands of scenarios, and after that, I would go through them, but that would make me too slow. It’s not like time stops while I’m thinking, so, I need to simultaneously discard simulations as my mind is creating them; I need to assign percentages to their likeliness, and decide which ones are viable or not so that I don’t respond to your attack, but I predict your every move from that one single motion,” he continued, pointing towards his knee. “I didn’t see your muscles twitch, but the moment you lift your knee up, 2,457 different scenarios were created, and parallel to their creation I eliminated 2,456 to determine the only possible outcome. But, after that, I ran 1,456,000 simulations about your next move if I countered in the way that I did, and I eliminated 1,455,000 of those in the end…If I hadn’t blocked in that way, you could have responded in 2,568,000 different scenarios, which is why I did learn that it’s valuable to try to make you move in the way that I want. I need to learn how to manipulate others into the future that I foresaw. Though, that’s more physical….your greatest contribution to me was mental. I think computers call this parallel processing; the ability to carry out multiple mental task simultaneously. That’s what I’ve scratched the surface of, and that’s what I need to continue to hone.” "That is a lot of words for saying you improved." Percival chuckled, marveling at the data Leo had dumped on him. "That's good though, use what you have, abuse it even. Make your quirk work the way you want it too. It's like a muscle, it can be shaped or moulded through the proper channels of training." He grinned as he walked to the door, tapping a keypad to sign out of the room. "Let's head back to the dorms. Your brain probably needs a rest huh." "Ha, yeah maybe," Leo responded, following behind Percival. "Thanks for the assist." Category:Dragon Lord Erin Category:Berserkchart486 Category:Finished Role-Plays